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Category: Veterans in politics

George Bush, 41st President, Dies at 94

George Herbert Walker Bush, the president who managed the end of the Cold War and forged a global coalition to oust Iraqi forces from Kuwait, has died at age 94. In a political career that spanned three decades, he lost his bid for re-election and lived to see his son win the Oval Office.

The death of Bush — nicknamed “41” to distinguish himself from son George W. Bush, “43” — was announced in a statement released late Friday.

“Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died,” his son, former President George W. Bush, said in a statement released by family spokesman Jim McGrath. “George H.W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for. The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41’s life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad, and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens.”

His death, which was announced by his office, came less than eight months after that of his wife of 73 years, Barbara Bush.

Mr. Bush had a form of Parkinson’s disease that forced him to use a wheelchair or motorized scooter in recent years, and he had been in and out of hospitals during that time as his health declined. In April, a day after attending Mrs. Bush’s funeral, he was treated for an infection that had spread to his blood. In 2013, he was in dire enough shape with bronchitis that former President George W. Bush, his son, solicited ideas for a eulogy.

But he proved resilient each time. In 2013 he told well-wishers, through an aide, to “put the harps back in the closet.”

On the day he turned 18 years old, Bush both graduated from Phillips Academy Andover and enlisted in the Navy, little more than six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Less than a year later, when he was still 18, he received his wings and officer’s commission, believed to be the Navy’s youngest pilot.

For the next two years, with World War II at its peak, Bush flew torpedo bombers off the USS San Jacinto. On Sept. 2, 1944, his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire while he was on a bombing run in the Pacific. Bush bailed and was rescued by a submarine, but his two crewmembers were killed. Bush would later say he thought of them every day.

Source: George Bush, 41st President, Dies at 94

December 1, 2018
When they start pimping out the corpse of a dead veteran for votes…everyone should lose.

The corpse of Jason Simcakoski seems to be popular fodder for political grazing these days. Jason died in 2014 while in the care of the VA. Now, Leah Vukmir and Tammy Baldwin are using his death in their respective campaign adds.

The parents and widow of a Marine veteran who died at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center appear in a pair of television ads that debuted Thursday praising Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin and calling attacks against her “shameful.”

The spots are an attempt by Baldwin to counter one of the main criticisms of her lodged by Republican opponent Leah Vukmir and conservative groups. Vukmir has charged that Baldwin failed to respond quickly enough to the crisis at Tomah, where veterans were being over-prescribed opioids leading up to the death of Jason Simcakoski in 2014.

Simcakoski’s parents are in one new Baldwin ad and his widow is in another. In both, they praise Baldwin for working with them to enact a law that toughened opioid prescription guidelines. They also call for attacks against Baldwin on Tomah to stop.

“When I see these attack ads against Tammy Baldwin, using Jason’s death, I think it’s shameful,” his widow Heather says in one ad. “Tammy has literally been there with us every step of the way for three years. She’s the one helping us do right by our veterans.”

It’s not bad enough that two politicians are using his death for political gain…now his widow and parents have jumped into the ring.

In an ad released Wednesday, Vukmir attacked Baldwin over her response to the Tomah crisis. It was the latest in a series of spots by her and conservative groups that have spent millions attacking Baldwin on the issue.

“You knew about the opioid crisis at the Tomah VA and you did nothing,” Vukmir said in the ad.

Baldwin’s office heard from a whistleblower about concerns at Tomah in March 2014. It received a report in August 2014 about its 2½-year investigation into Tomah that cited concerns over the prescription of opioids at the facility, which is about 100 miles northwest of Madison.

Simcakoski died the day after Baldwin’s office received the report.

The family of Jason Simcakoski became effective activists and were instrumental in passing the Jason Simcakoski Memorial Opioid Safety Act. They were also awarded $2.3 million. The practice of treating veterans at “Pill Factories” needed to be addressed.

Everyone is diminished when they are drawn into petty political fights. Vukmir and Baldwin are political parasites feeding on the dead corpse of a veteran. Shame on his family for jumping into this fight. Vukmir needs to STFU and Baldwin lacks the dignity to ask this family to stay out of this petty fight. The lawyers were all paid, the family was paid, even the doctor that was in charge of Simcakoski managed to get his back pay. Now, these two political hacks seek to profit from his death.

I hope my family has the dignity not to pimp out my corpse. Maybe one day they will all find the dignity to let my brother rest in peace.

October 1, 2018
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke lifts lead ban

On his first day in office as the new Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke lifted the ban imposed on hunters and fishermen in National Parks by the Obama Administration in it’s waning hours. Based on feelings and nothing more, Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Director Dan Ashe banned the use of lead ammunition and fishing tackle on January 19th – the day before the Obama Administration ended. From The Hill;

“After reviewing the order and the process by which it was promulgated, I have determined that the order is not mandated by any existing statutory or regulatory requirement and was issued without significant communication, consultation or coordination with affected stakeholders,” Zinke wrote in his order.

[…]

Gun rights advocates, sportsmen’s groups, conservatives and state wildlife agencies were united against the lead ban.

Lead is standard in ammunition, and lead-free bullets are more expensive, leading opponents to accuse the FWS of trying to reduce hunting. Furthermore, opponents say, scientific studies do not show large-scale harms from lead use in hunting and fishing.

March 3, 2017
Clinton’s campaign arranges ‘Veterans Against Trump’

According to the Daily Beast there was a protest outside Trump Tower yesterday. I watched some of it on a live feed, but it triggered my bad memories of the old IVAW days so I had to turn it off. Anyway, the protesters were angry because Trump hadn’t really raised $6 million for veterans, according to a Washington Post article. See, I thought veterans didn’t want Trump’s money. This campaign is confusing. Anyway from the Daily Beast link;

The protest was actually a coordinated effort, led in part by the Hillary Clinton campaign, to embarrass her Republican rival for his failed efforts to raise money for veterans. It only looked like a grassroots demonstration.

A spokesman for the demonstrators insisted they had no affiliation with any campaign. Later he said the protesters had reached out to the Clinton campaign for press contacts, but that’s all. Then the activist finally admitted that, yes, the Clinton campaign had helped organize the protest.

[…]

At Monday’s protest, Marine veteran and Clinton supporter Alexander McCoy served as a spokesman for the demonstrators—and went to great lengths to hide the Clinton campaign’s involvement with organizing the demonstration.

“We’re not affiliated with any campaign, we’re not affiliated with any organization,” McCoy told reporters, saying the protesters used “grassroots organizing techniques, we came together over social media.”

McCoy later told The Daily Beast he reached out to the Clinton campaign to obtain press contacts but denied that Clinton staffers had been involved in organizing the event.

Then, reached by phone after the event, McCoy acknowledged that the Clinton campaign organized the conference call bringing together possible attendees to the protest.

Feel like a cheap whore, do you? Like I’ve said, I’m no Trump fan, but I don’t like having my name used by any of the campaigns. Least of all, the Clinton campaign. We already knows what she thinks about us. This Alexander McCoy fellow should feel ashamed that he’s being manipulated by the Benghazi Queen. Of course, he’s probably just feathering his own nest, anyway.

May 24, 2016
Mike Webb for Congress

There’s this guy in Virginia’s 8th Congressional District who is running for that seat by the name of Michael Webb. He was running as a Republican, but he was defeated in the primary, so he’s running as an Independent now. He came to our attention a few months ago because he was touting his career in the military. He claims that he was an Airborne Ranger and a major in the Army Reserves;

Well, the truth is a matter of semantics – he was indeed an Army Reserves officer and he was in the 2nd Battalion, 75th Rangers. I’ve emailed with him a couple of times and he’s not exactly easy to talk to. He’s a brilliant man, very good command of the English language, but, like many of the people we talk to here, he’s a bit wordy – he says a lot of words, but not many of those words answer any questions.

His time at the 2/75th Rangers was spent as the battalion legal clerk – a Specialist (E-4). He wants you to think that he was an infantryman while he was there, but he really wasn’t;

He trained as an infantryman, but he served as a legal clerk while he was on active duty. Mike explains to a prospective constituent;

Now, when I talked to the Army Recruiter, today, I asked him why they changed the entry course for service in the Regiment from RIP to RASP, and he told me, “because too many people died.” Again, I am thinking that is really valorous to say that I survived. When I got to the Ranger Regiment and served for two years during a time of relative piece, we experienced ten casualties of which I am aware in the Regiment, including two battalion commanders, one of my own company commanders and his radio technician because we all trained realistically for wars we were all expected to fight when called. Again, I am thinking that that is a little more than turning on your XBox to play Call of Duty.

And, at that elite unit, I was ordered to forgo Ranger School to attend Officer Candidate School after being identified as one of the top five Rangers in a company of more than 140 Rangers.

When you have done half of that, you might be able to brag, too, and not steal my valor.

You see what I mean about Mike’s communication abilities. I think he’s saying that because he completed two weeks of the Ranger Indoctrination Program, he’s a Airborne Ranger. I’m not sure how changing the name of RIP to RASP saved lives, but there you go.

He accused me of calling a “tab check”, but he has no tab to check. He never went to Ranger School – you know, why waste training dollars on a legal clerk? Still, being a legal clerk in the Ranger Battalions is a tougher job than being a legal clerk anywhere else, but, I guess it’s up to you if you think being a legal clerk in a Ranger Battalion allows you to call yourself a Airborne Ranger. I was an infantryman in a Ranger Battalion, but you won’t find me calling myself an Airborne Ranger – of course, Mike told me that I should.

He didn’t deploy with the Rangers, he also didn’t deploy during the war against terror with the Army Reserves as an Military Intelligence officer;

He campaigns in Virginia in a uniform;

I think he can almost get away with it because he doesn’t have any patches on the uniform, but, to me, he looks like he’s a homeless bum who shops at the surplus store. He shows a lot of bad judgement.

Speaking of which, he put a screenshot of his computer screen on the internet yesterday – he forgot to close the PRON tabs before doing so;

That’s not going to help his campaign.

I’m not calling this a stolen valor case, because, like I said, it’s about language. I know what his intentions are, but I’m not the Thought Police.

Oh, yeah, this isn’t an endorsement of his run for the Congressional seat.

May 17, 2016
Veterans for Trump

The Trump campaign issued a press release the other day announcing the formation of the “Veterans for Trump” coalition in New Hampshire made up of veterans who will campaign for Donald Trump during the primaries. There is a list of 52 folks on the press release, but it seems that at least three of them never gave their permission to the campaign to use their names, according to The Guardian;

“I don’t know anything about it,” said Ernie Fusi, an 88-year-old second world war veteran from Atkinson, New Hampshire. His name was among 51 “Veterans for Trump” whose details were sent out to the media and listed on Trump’s website.

“I haven’t told anyone I want to get in on that,” Fusi said. “I’m not going to do any campaigning.”

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

I get the sense that this probably wasn’t intentional. Someone in the campaign asked some veterans for some names to put on the list and someone figured that these people would support what this thing says that Trump will do for veterans. It’s a rookie mistake, and I’m pretty sure that it happens all of the time. However, the Trump campaign should have vetted the list before they published it, because every Republican campaign will be scrutinized by the media – unlike the other side. Since Trump is getting out in front of the other candidates, he is, and his campaign is, going to make mistakes that will stand as examples for the other candidates.

I’ve seen polls that say veterans support Trump in numbers greater than the other candidates, so that makes Trump a target. But, I’m pretty sure that no one at The Guardian or the Gawker are going to be pulling levers for Trump, or any other Republican, any time soon, so take it all with a grain of salt.

Thanks to Chief Tango for the link.

July 25, 2015
Jim Webb announces presidential bid

You’ve probably already heard about veteran, former Navy Secretary and former Senator Jim Webb announcing his intentions to run for President next year as a Democrat. Dave Hardin and I had an email discussion about this yesterday, We agreed that in the Democrat pool of candidates – Clinton, Sanders and O’Malley – Webb was probably the best choice.

My problem with Webb is that he tends towards being a petulant child at times. The picture above was taken in 2007 at an anti-war protest and the Webb for President signs were carried by Move-On protesters because Webb had snubbed President Bush while visiting the White House a few days before the protest. In my opinion, that was really bad judgement on Webb’s part. If he was really that upset with the then-President, he shouldn’t have gone to the White House in the first place, but obviously he went to ingratiate himself with the Left and make a spectacle of himself.

Knowing the Move On creeps in DC like I do, I doubt many of them will be carrying “Webb for President” signs during this 2016 campaign, not with Hillary in the race. I also doubt that there will be many Democrats carrying Webb signs at all. Not when the icons of liberalism are the other choices. Webb will probably not survive the first primary when, to a liberal, even O’Malley is a better choice. The smartest vice president in the history of the United States hasn’t even announced his candidacy yet.

I will admit that, despite my misgivings about Webb and his immature outburst in the White House, I would probably vote for Webb before many of the Republican candidates, though. But that is more of a testament to the dreary set of choices that the two parties have presented to the voting public than anything.

July 3, 2015
2LT Joshua Nelson back in the news

A few weeks ago we wrote about LT Joshua Nelson, a Guardsman in the West Virginia Air National Guard when he took on a knife-wielding thug in Walmart. Today in the Stars & Stripes we read how he is a state legislator in West Virginia and he’s trying to win a second term as a politician, despite the fact that he’s hardly around for those duties because of deployments;

Nelson is a fresh graduate from flight school at Laughlin Air Force Base. While in Texas, the Republican missed this year’s entire 60-day legislative session, including 494 votes. Last year, he wasn’t around for 367 of 460 votes due to Guard service.

It’s not a deal-breaker for some in Nelson’s district, which includes most of Boone County, a tight-knit mining community struggling in Appalachian coal’s downturn.

Nelson, a coal miner himself, has served in the Marines. He has been training on C-130s for the Guard’s 130th Airlift Wing.

“Anyone who’s willing to go out and take a bullet for his country deserves to be in office,” said Nancy Smith, of Madison.

Allen Dotson, a coal miner and Democrat from Danville, said he is irked by Nelson’s absence, even though he appreciates his service.

“He chose to be a pilot,” Dotson said. “I don’t think he even has the right to be on the ballot.”

Well, of course he has a “right” to be on the ballot, Al, but that doesn’t mean that you have to vote for him.

Nelson has collected $15,000 in legislative pay, plus $625 each month outside of session besides December, all of which he said he has donated to charitable causes.

His opponent, Democrat coal miner Barry Brown, has used Nelson’s absence against him in the campaign, which I suppose is legitimate, but the voters will get the final say. There are certainly a lot of Democrats (as well as Republicans) who miss a bunch of votes at the national level and no one seems to mind.

November 2, 2014